Arm Keil MDK vs RustRover
Arm Keil MDK
keil.arm.com
RustRover
jetbrains.comSide by side
| Figure | Arm Keil MDK | RustRover |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $99/mo | $6.90/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 8 | 2 |
| Spec score · IDE Software | 9.4 (#1) | 7.8 (#28) |
| Purpose | Keil MDK simplifies embedded software development for Cortex-M and Ethos-U processors through CLI, IDE, or continuous integration workflows. | RustRover is an IDE for Rust developers to code, test, debug, and deploy. |
| Support | Keil MDK support offers support cases, a community forum, documentation, and learning videos. | Direct support service is available to commercial-license users; users can also ask questions in the RustRover Slack channel or email support. |
| Telemetry | Keil Studio collects usage data according to VS Code telemetry settings, which users can change. | The product page says the non-commercial tier may send anonymized usage statistics and collects detailed code-related data by default, which users can disable in settings. |
Plans
Arm Keil MDK
- EssentialPriced on request
- ProfessionalPriced on request
- ProfessionalPriced on request
- CommunityFree
- Keil MDK v6 Essential82.39 CHF a month
- Keil MDK v6 Essential$99 a month
- Keil MDK v6 Professional165.60 CHF a month
- Keil MDK v6 Professional$199 a month
RustRover
- RustRover Non-CommercialFree
- RustRover Commercial — Individual$6.90 a month
In their own words
Arm Keil MDK
Arm Keil MDK is a toolchain for embedded software targeting Cortex-M and Ethos-U processors. MDK v6 supports command-line, IDE, and continuous-integration workflows across major operating systems. It includes Keil Studio extensions for Visual Studio Code, Keil μVision, Arm Compiler for Embedded, and Arm Fixed Virtual Platform models. Software packs add device and board support, middleware, components, code templates, and example projects independently of the toolchain. Keil Studio supports CMSIS workflows with an integrated debugger and extensions for creating, building, and testing embedded applications. Listed integrations include CMSIS-FreeRTOS, Keil RTX5, MDK-Middleware, IoT clients, CMSIS-DAP, ULink, and third-party debug adapters. Community is for non-commercial use. The listed MDK v6 Essential plan costs $99 a month per license; Professional costs $199 a month per license and adds Arm Virtual Hardware, functional-safety compiler tools, and legacy tools including Arm Compiler 5. Keil μVision is available only for Windows hosts.
RustRover
RustRover is an IDE for Rust developers to code, test, debug and deploy. Project analysis supports completion, inspections, refactoring, navigation, usage searches and syntax highlighting. Its coding assistance includes context-aware completion and generation, on-the-fly analysis, quick-fixes, smart refactorings and live templates. RustRover can install rustup and helps manage Rust files and crate dependencies in Cargo.toml. It includes debugging, build and testing tools, plus project management and dev container support. Plugins from JetBrains Marketplace and custom repositories can add integrations and other features. RustRover runs on Windows, macOS and Linux; BSD-based operating systems are not supported. New users can try the full-featured IDE for 30 days. The non-commercial plan costs nothing for learning, self-education, qualifying open-source contributions, content creation and hobby development, and requires a JetBrains Account. Commercial individual use costs $6.90 a month. The non-commercial tier may send anonymized usage statistics and collects detailed code-related data by default, which users can disable in settings.